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Sunday, December 28, 2014

We had a great visit with Tynan on Christmas. Wonderful to have all of our children together!

Feliz Navidad Familia

I had a great and happy christmas here in chile. Oh and did I mention warm or better said Hot Christmas. haha Sorry I know it is snowing there. I loved being able to see that. I miss the snow. Christmas lights just arent the same when it is 9:30 at night and the sun hasnt finished setting yet. haha. There is a family in my ward that is going to Utah today that will be so happy that it is snowing. The highlight of the week was talking to everyone. I loved seeing all of the sibblings together. We keep getting closer and closer to being together completely as a family and I think it is awesome. I also loved being able to see so many others too. I love being able to see and talk with you all. It is something different than the usual. This week was a good week. On Christmas eve we had a dinner with a family in the ward. It was really fun. There were two little kids so it was fun to see their excitement. Everytime they heard something outside they thought that it was santa. Here in chile the whole family waits up until midnight to open the presents. And santa comes durring the week a lot of times to bring the presents and put them under the tree. But the kids cant open them until 12 o clock on christmas eve. WHAT A TEMPTATION! I would have died. I was tempted to open up my stocking early but I held myself back. On christmas we woke up and I opened my stocking. Thanks for all of the food and candy it is the best. I think with everything I have gotten I should be good for a few months. We studied and went to the office. It was a normal office day. I made lunch. The traditional home made christmas pizza. It wasnt on christmas eve but it was really good. After leaving the office we went to talk to you all. The 40 minutes actually felt a little longer than usual which I liked because I got to talk more. After we went and visited a few people. Big surprise but there werent very many people home. We visited with our ward mission leader and his family. I have gotten a bunch of fruit cake here. I have always felt like fruit cake was a joke becuase it basicaly is in the US but here it is really popular.

This next week we have changes so it will be a busy week. I am really excited because I am companions with the Secretary so I get to go with them to pick up the new missionaries from the MTC right next to the temple. So for the first time I am going to see the Santiago Temple. I am really excited to get to go to Santiago. Then we will have all of the meetings and everything. Then Wednesday I will get my new companion. I dont know who it is yet. If I can get the asistents to tell me maybe I will find out monday or tuesday. If not Wednesday when they are in the internet system that we use. I prefer knowing before hand. haha. i have liked that of my last changes in the office. We are in a rotation so I always knew who I was going to be with. I know it will be good.

I am so excited for Bryce that will be so awesome!!! That was the best anouncement that I heard in the call. My companion doesnt even know where that is, he is from the woodlands area...? I cant believe everyone is so old. Adam is training drew is graduating. Kevin is in France. Annie is getting married. How does time fly so fast? But I think I like it that way. it means your working hard.

I love you all so much. I am so grateful for the opportunity to talk to you all this last week.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

I am really excited for christmas to come!! We are having a activity in the ward today and then for christmas eve we will be eating with a family. On christmas we are planning on calling at 5 our time so 1 your time. We are going to be doing it the the relief society presidents house.

I had a crazy but awesome experience this week. On monday the president sent me an email saying that I needed to deposit a lot of money into a bank account but for some reason I didnt get the mail in my regular inbox so i didnt see it. At like 4 in the afternoon he came and asked if I had deposited the money. After trying to figure out what happened to the email I left running with another missionary to try and pay it becuase he said that It had to be paid that day. That was a little bit of a problem because generally the banks here in chile close at 2, now that it was 4 I was just running and praying for a miracle. We got to the bank and it was still open. I was so grateful that in the end everything worked out and we were able to pay what we needed to pay in time. It is something that may seem so small and insignificant but I was so grateful for the lords help putting everything in order to be able to do what we needed to do. I have seen this day after day that really everything will work out in the end. Mom always said that growing up and sometimes I didnt like it. When I was frustrated or mad I just wanted to be like that so hearing that everything would be ok in the end just added to my stress. Now each day that I have when I am stressed I think of that phase and remember that everything will be ok. It is a great part of patience (something I am still working on mastering).

This week in my study I thought of some things that I wanted to share with you.

I love this special time of year, The lights and decorations bring a special spirit of happiness to my life. I am so grateful for this special season that we have to remember the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. It is really special for me as I am serving as a representative of Christ during this special time. I truly testify that Christ is the greatest gift of our father. He was born of Mary in a humble manger and lived a great life to show us the way back to our father. As we serve him and strive to be like him we will come to truly know him. At one point this season will end, the trees will come down and the lights will be dimmed. We must not let our spiritual lights inside us be dimmed as well throughout the next year. 2015 will come with many things to do and I know in my life it will be full of many changes and experiences. With all that the new year will bring we must not forget the spirit that we have felt in this special time of year. The spirit of Christ is available to each of us year round, we only have to open our hearts and let it in.

President Uchdorf said "sometimes the most precious and sacred things are right in front of us, in plain sight, but we cannot or will not see them... I promise that if we unclutter our lives a little bit and in sincerity and humility seek the pure and gentle Christ with our hearts, we will see Him, We will find Him, on Christmas and throughout the year."

I know we can find Christ each day throughout the year. I have felt that more in my mission than every before. Each day I come to know my savior better. As I do that I feel a greater happiness than I have ever felt.

Christ is our savior. He lived and died for each of us. He lives and soon will come to the earth again. We must live each day in preparation for this glorious day. Lets remember this spirit of Christ that we feel at this time of year and keep it throughout the year. We must make room for Jesus Christ in our inn. Elder Maxwell said, "Each of us is an innkeeper who decides if there is room for Jesus!" Make him room in your hearts.

Les quiero Mucho

Que tengan una feliz navidad.

Elder Hamilton

Valparasio

it is a tradition that each week we go to a icecream store that is right in front of where we go for the visas. They say that they got voted one of the best 25 icecream stores in the world. I dont know if it is that good but I like it. ​

Saturday, December 13, 2014

There was a lot of things to do this week it was crazy. But in the end we did it all. My president said at the beginning of the week that it was a lot to do but the lord always blesses us to finish it all. I know that is true. This week we started zone conferences. Generally in the office we dont have a lot to do with that but there was a lot that the president wanted to do for the missionaries so we had a lot of tasks to complete. On monday we started the day off in the office with our office counsel that we have each monday. At the end of that the president told us all the work that he needed us to do to help him for the conferences that started the following day. So inmediately we got to work. We went to talk to the people who do lunchs when we have conferences to get everything organized with them. We had to go to Jumbo, The big grocery story here that is like walmart, we ended up buying two shoping carts full of things. Back in the office we were getting 275 pendrives ready for the missionaries. One of the "presents" was a pendrive with different videos that we can use in teaching and other training and files that we need in our areas. We may not have ipads but he wanted to go into 2015 a little more technologico. Also we had to prepare emergency kits for each of the missionaries houses. We found out about our next reading of the book of mormon too so we had to get all of the books ready. It is in english and spanish so there were twice as many books to get ready. My companion was lamanating for 9 hours straight monday getting all the papers ready that go inside the books. In the end, on monday, we were able to get everything ready for the conferences for tuesday. We were in the office from 11 in the morning to 11:45 at night so we were a little tired after. The rest of the week we were working during normal office hours trying to get everything as ready as we could for the conferences this week and those that are next week. I fell a little behind in my regular office work with everything we were doing but yesterday I was able to catch up on a lot of that. This next week we still have a little bit to prepare but not a ton. I love it when there is a lot of work to do, and that happens a lot in the office.

In my conference on tuesday we found out that the church is doing a change in our area starting in 2015. The area south america south which are 4 countries (chile, argentina, uraguay and paraguay) is going to change the way we count our work each week and day. Each day and week we count the number of people with baptism dates, number of investigators asisting chuch, books given, lessons to less actives or converts, lessons with and without members, references, and new investigatos. That is what we do now. Starting in 2015 we will only use two numbers each week. How many people got baptised and the total asistance in the sacrament meeting including members, less actives, and investigators. Thats it. Our focus is supposed to always be baptise, retain, and activate at the same time. Im not sure in which areas the church is doing this change to try it but I am really interested to see the differences. It is a big difference but the work is changing and accelerating. I am so happy and thankful for this special time that I have had here. i have been able to see, and keep seeing, so many different changes in the missionary work and different ways the church is share the gospel. We really live in a chosen time and I am so grateful for that. I love being a part of this great work in such a small but important way.

I was so happy this week because the Motab chanel started playing all christmas music so I have been able to listen to all christmas music all day in the office. It has been great.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Another week has passed and here we are again. This week went just as fast as each week. The life in the mission in so fast and it is even more in the office. As you can see in my pictures "it is beginning to look a lot like christmas." I had the great opportunity to decorate a tree in our department and in the mission office. It was fun to be able to do that and I received great comments from some of the missionaries and the president. We had mission leadership counsel this week which went very well. That is the meeting with all of the zone leaders and the sister leadership trainers. It was the last time I will get to give a little presentation because the next time I will have my "son". I cant believe I have already been in the office for so long it flies by. I love every part of it. A lot of times it is very stressful and there is always a lot to do but I love doing it. I have enjoyed learning a lot durring this time. We still have the whole month of december before the next transfers so I still have a lot of time to work which makes me happy. I cant believe that in a little bit Brandon goes home. I am sure Carlene is really happy and looking forward to that day.

Everything is going well in my area. We found a new investigator this week that is really great. She was budist but really open to change. She said that after reading the book of mormon and praying she felt peace and tranquility. She was able to recognize that as her answer. She is working towards baptism and we are going to be helping her prepare herself so I am excited to se her progress.

Mom asked about our book of mormon reading as a mission. We havent been doing the last one for the last month because the president wanted to wait. We are going to start reading this week. It is going to be for 4 months because we will be reading the book of mormon with el libro de Mormón. We dont know what the different subjects will be that we will look for but I am excited to be reading it again in english. In the translation there are some differences (translation never is perfect) It will be very interesting to see the differences in the two.

I am doing great and am as happy as always. I love life in this world. It is hard and sometimes I dont think I will every rest but it is full of great experiences and times to learn. Have a great week! I love you all.

Les quiero

Elder Hamilton

If you know Tynan, you will know how excited he was to decorate the trees in the office.

Saturday, November 29, 2014

it is great hearing about how everyone is going and how your thanksgiving went. I missed eating the pumpkin pie (my favorite). This was another great week here in chile. It is going by just as fast as always which I still struggle to understand how. haha. but that is the mission (and life) so Im told. This week sunday we started out with the biggest baptism that I have ever seen. 4 Investigators were baptised. It was so awesome to see. I was glad to see all of them take this step to be baptised. They were all really happy and excited to be doing it. It was interesting because the next day we had lessions with them and they were all going through trials imediately after their baptism. Thinking back to the other people that I have seen baptised similar things happen. Satan knows the importance of baptism and doesnt want the people to go through with this and then endure to the end. The family is in the process of adopting a new baby and we hoping to hear when they would receive him in their home but on mondaythey were told that they still had to wait a little longer. It was really hard for the sister but she said that it was a little easier than before. She said the before she would have asked God why her but now she knows that God will look out for her as she is faithful. The youth that got baptised has problems with depresion and his medicine hasnt been doing very well and so he was really depresed now he is in the hospital to see what they can do to get him on better medicine. We are hoping and praying that all goes well for him and he can leave soon.

This week we had a conference for the district leaders, so I got to help with that and attend it. It was really great and I learned a lot about how I cant work to be a better district leader and help the district. The district is a powerhouse, as President Kahnlein says. It has the 4 office workers, the 2 zone leaders and 2 sister leadership trainers. They are working really hard and so we have a few baptism dates for December. For this sunday there are also 2 more baptisms in the district. We are really happy with what the Viña zone has been doing because we have really been blessed with many chosen investigators these last 2 months.

With the conference I also gave a short presentation. As I was getting ready for the presentation I was thinking about what I wanted the missionaries to know. Sometime I talk about what they need to do so I can pay their rent, utilities and other spendings but I wanted to talk about the importance of the money that we use. I realized that my testimony of tithing and the lords funds has grown so much. I have grown to aprieciate much more the sacrifices that people make to the lord and the reason we pay tithing. It is the reason we are able to do everything in the church. Without that we couldnt have temples, missionary work, or books. Thank you everyone who makes this sacrifice so that we can help others come unto christ and receive the saving ordinances. I have not been so great in my life with handling money. It isnt like I spend everything but I didnt always save what I could have. I think god gave me this oportunity so that I could learn and grow in this aspect of my life. It was a goal as I started my mission to learn to handle my money better. I have gotten much better and I know that now I have learned a lot more.

I love you all so much. Have a great week. If you didnt eat pumpkin pie this last week do it! you wont regret it. haha

Les quiero

Elder Hamilton

These pictures are from his new apartment. This has to be the nicest one he has been in yet. Great View! CH

Sunday, November 23, 2014

I am doing great and happy like always. This week we had changes so it was another busy week. Monday was a normal day with some preparations for the transfers and sending and receiving the missionaries. Tuesday in the morning we sent the oldes home got the mission home ready for the new missionary training. Tuesday was a day full of running all over the place to get everything done. In the afternoon I started getting phone calls from some of the missionaries at the airport saying that they didnt have enough money for theier bags. I hate it when that happens. There is an airline called LAN that almost all the latins use to get home. There website and customer service is so confusing so we always end up the the wrong information. The elder that called to know how much it was going to cost was told 45000 pesos but they needed 90000 so I had to call the taxi driver, who is an saving angel, to help us. He had to go to the airport and pay the rest and will just bill us. It was a little stressful because the last time this happened the missionary didnt make his flight and had to stay in the mtc one night. In the end after a lot of praying (I mean a lot) everything worked out really well and everyone got home. This week we are going to go the the LAN store here in Viña to explain what has been happening and see if we can see what their policies really are so this doesnt happen again. Tuesday in the night we had our presentation with the news and at the end of the night I went to pack my bags. Wednesday was the transfer day. So we were helping with the news in the house and getting the church ready for the changes. We had to run between the house and the church like 4 times which isnt very far but I was really tired after doing it all. Also we spent a lot of time moving the new missionaries suitcases over to the church and unloading the suitcases from the bus that brought the missionaries from the north part of the mission. I think we had to move around 100 bags that weight a lot so all of our arms and legs were a little sore the next day. Everything went really well in the end. I have a new companion, area, and house which is fun for a change. It is really weird having different companions every change. You get used to one person and then it changes. But it isnt a grand change becuase we already have been in the office together for a little time so we knew eachother. His name is elder Huntsman from texas. He only has like 3 changes left in his mission so I am really looking forward to learning a lot from him. I really like my new area. Since the begining of my mission I have wanted to work in Viña viña. And now I am working in central viña. It is a great sector. Really different than where I have been before because it is a bigger city. This ward recently had a change in bishop and the new bishop has a ton of excitement for the work. With that the ward as really woken up and they have had many baptisms. This sunday we will actually have 4 baptisms. It is a family of 3 that are going to be baptised. They were a reference from a member in another stake. And also a Youth that is going to be baptised. They are all so excited to be baptised and really have been prepared by god for this time. All of them have only been talking with the missionaries for 2 or 3 weeks and they have progresed so much. This young man received a book of mormon from a friend and then one day just went to church and talked to the missionaries. He is so excited. yesterday we were looking for him because he didnt come to his lession on thursday but we couldnt find him. We thought that we were going to have to postpone his baptism because he still needed some teachings. When we couldnt find him I said a prayer asking for someway to find him and talk to him. We were in the church for the interviews of the family and he just walked in. He didnt know that we would be there he just came. It was a miracle. This whole week has been full of miracles. We told him that we might have to pospone his baptism and he energeticly pleaded that we didnt becuase he was looking forward to sunday so much and had invited a lot of his family and his friends. He keeps telling us that in a year he is going to be a missionary too. I love seeing miracles. This week I was walking in the street trying to remember a why I had to take out some money to pay for something but I could not remember why. I prayed and almost instantly I remembered. Or better said god reminded me. There are so many times when I feel like my prayers are answered right away. I know that god really cares what is worring us or what is happening in our lives. I really love what I am doing. I am learning a ton and I know that I am growing closer to christ which is the most important. This week of thanks giving I am so thankful for this last year and 4 months that I have had in my mission. This year, 2014, i have been writing down each day the things of that day that I am grateful for. It has helped me see really how grateful I am for everything in my life.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

It is great to hear that everything is going well at home. Things are busy but going great as usual. It was less busy this week but as usual there is always something to do. Thats how I like it. I liked reading what Grandma and Grandpa Andrew are doing in Brazil. There are a lot of similar things they are doing that I am involved in in the office so it is fun to see the differences. This next week we will have our transfers so we are waiting for a busy week we are sending home 27 missionaries and receiving 18 new missionaries. This will be my last week in the area that I am working in "Forestal Alto." In the office there are two areas you work in. Now I will be changing companions and I will be in the center of Viña del mar. I am really excited to be working in central vina. I have always wanted to work there. I will be companions with the secretary of the mission, Elder Huntsman from texas.

This last week I was reading in our search for happiness about joseph smith. After the first vision he didnt have much comunication with god for some time and at one point he was worried about his standing before god. He did a lot of studying and then prayed and asked god. When I was reading that I felt like I could do the same so I decided to pray and ask god how I was doing, where i was in his eyes, and what I need to do better. I was able to receive such a great feeling and direct revelation. I love that we can have this relation with god in our lives and I know that everyone can have it. That is what is so great. The blessings are for each and everyone one of us. It is our choice to decide. Then I was reading in The manual of president Smith for the class sunday and it was talking about just that. It is our choice how we are going to live and what we will do. We can chose to read the scripture, pray, go to the temple often, or we can chose to put other things first and then we will wont always receive the blessings. He talked about how we cant be lazy rather we must always work. I really liked something that he said. This is my own translation so it may not be that great. "It´s our duty to do the best we can and not avoid it, but try with all our soul to magnify the callings the lord gives us, to work diligently for the salvation of our own family, each and every one of us, and for the salvation of those that are in far away places." President Smith. I really liked what he said and think it is what we all need to do. The work is never done. There is always something to learn or pray about. There is always need to go to the temple. if we stop doing these things we start falling backwards. This week we shared with a less active family the restoration. We invited them to go to church and they started to explain all of the reasons why they dont go. Problems with the members, a bad experience,.. all of the normal excuses that we hear as missionaries. They explained how in their home they kept doing all of the things the church teaches they just arent assisting. I felt like I should explain the experience that I have had as a missionary and all of the people that I have seen with these same principle reasons not to go to church. I told them that it always starts with that. First we stop going to church. We can say that we will keep living as we should but at one point that changes. We start falling backwards until we are not obeying the commandments of god and the promises we have made at baptism. I think we could say, for the members who have progressed and assisted the temple. It all starts as we stop assisting the temple often. We can put so many other things in the way in life. I know that I have done it and I keep doing it in my life. As the scriptures say we must give everything to god. We focus on that a lot as missionaries with members, less actives, and investigadors. Christ has given us the path to follow. Will we take it....

I love you all. Thanks for all you are doing to support me. I love being here in chile and sharing the thing that matters most to me. Do what Joseph did and ask god for yourself what more we can do. I know that he will respond.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

it is so good to hear from you all. I am doing good. I had a good but tiring week with lots to do. This week in the office we found out that we need to close 6 areas at the end of this change because we have more people leaving than coming to the mission so the Elder that is incharge of the houses and I started doing that. It has been a lot of work figuring all that out. Yesterday we had the mission leadership council that we have at the biggining of each month. It is with all of the zone leaders and the sister leader trainers. It went well, there was a lot of running arround to get everything done but we were able to do it. Last night all of us from the office were really tired and today we still are like that but its good to have a little break today.

In our area we are working with a man that has 30 years old. His name is Jonathan. He has some problems with the word of wisdom and other aspects of his life. We are working to help him. He has a lot of desires to change and to come closer to God. He hasnt always had a very easy life and hasnt always made the right choices but he wants to change that. I love see the people who want to change. We were able to go to the hospital this week and give a blessing to one of our investigator´s father. It went really well. We are hoping that we can help her and her family come into the gospel.

Everything is going really well here. I had a really fun week. I hope that everything is going well for you all at home. Keep doing what you should.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

I had a great week this week. I love what I am doing and I love serving the Lord. This week we had our stake conference which was so great. I loved it a lot. President Kähnleins parents were there who are still not members which was cool that they went. This week was good and calm with nothing too new.

This week we did exchanges with the other two elders from the office and I loved it. We had such an awesome lesson with a family. This family has a friend that is a member in a neighboring stake who called the elders and took them to the house of his friends family. This was the second lession with them and we were talking about the gospel of jesus christ and the things that we need to do here on earth to return to live with god. We were reading in 3 Nephi 11 when Jesus comes to the americas. I love this part of the book of mormon it is so powerful. I love reading about the faithful nephites who were in awe to see Christ. When Jesus was teaching about baptism. The sister, who is catholic, realized how the baptism in the catholic church is different than the way that Christ was baptized and how he taught baptism. It was really awesome and the spirit was so strong. She started crying when we started inviting her to be baptised because she was so happy for her family. Her daughter, who is 14, before didnt really believe in god. She had read her assignment the night before and was really excited. Her mom said that she was so surprised because she normally wasnt like that. I love seeing the changes that people can make in their lives. It is amazing that overnight or over a short period of time people can make these changes.

This last pday we got to go to a baptism and I was so happy for the person getting baptised. If you remember the little girl that was baptised in my area when I first got her to viña. One time when we were visiting her we started talking to her aunts boyfriend who wasnt a member. We were able to share with him like 3 times when he was in thier house and he came to church in our ward once. He lives in central viña where the other to office workers are so we passed the reference to them. This last saturday he got baptised. It was so great to see him do that. I remember the first lesson that we had with him and how he felt a little uncertian. In his baptism he shared his testamony and it was so strong. I loved being able to be so close and see what happened to a reference after we passed it. I was so happy that he got baptized and really happy becuase one of the elders in the office had never done the ordinance of baptising someone before and he got to baptise him.

It was a really great week and I am looking forward to another great week. I love you so much

Ps- I have already got my halloween stuff taken down and the christmas lights up and they are putting up some christmas lights in central viña too. I love christmas time.

Saturday, October 25, 2014

This week was really good. I got my package which what awesome. Thanks for all the treats. My companion and I ate poptarts for breakfast today. i am really excited about the wheat thins. They are so good!! haha. This week we were doing the stand. Remember this thing that our mission is testing out. So we were doing that in the evenings. With two hours of the stand after the office we didnt have a ton of time in our area but we were able to talk to some people. We are really looking forward to working a lot in our area this week. This week in the office on monday there were a few emergency changes in the mission and so we had a few changes in the office. Everything is going really well in the office. Things are a lot more peaceful in the office and this next week will be the same. We wont have any reunions or changes for a little while. Today and tomorrow we have stake conference so I am excited for that.

This week we finished the book of mormon for the third time this year. Now we should be starting the fouth time in a week or two. We are going to have to read it faster if we will be finishing it by the end of the year. It will be a little easier because this time the book of mormon will be shorter because we are all going to be reading it in english. The mission really focuses a lot on english for the latin missionaries and so we are going to be reading together in english. I am really excited for this because even though I can understand it just fine in spanish there is a difference in english. There are a few times when the translations are different. It is like conference talks, They dont come off the same way. so that will be a lot of fun to do together. I have loved reading the book of mormon focusing on different topics. I have been surprised at how much I have been able to learn. I cant believe it has been almost a year since we started reading it. I always talk to other missionaries who got hear mid year and havent been doing it for the full time and I realize how long I have already been here.

I also cant believe I am turning 21 that is so wierd. I feel so old to say it. but then in my ment I still feel so young. haha. i am excited for my birthday. it will be great.

I am glad that everything is going well for all of you guys. i love hearing from you all. now is the best time in the mission to send me letters because i get them right away. I got the package and a great letter this week. Thanks for all of your love and support. I love you all

Saturday, October 18, 2014

In our area we were able to find some new people to teach which we are super excited about. We are really happy with who we are teaching and hope that they will keep progressing. It is so great to see the people complete there compromises to read the book of mormon or to pray. We are expecting some people to come with us to church this week so we will see what happens. The thing I liked the most this week was The zone conference that we had this week. It was what we call the repeat conference. All of the leaders have a meeting with president each month and then the following week they present us all of the presentations and information. It was really great I liked it a lot. We talked a lot about courage And how we need to have courage in every part of our life. That is something that I have been studing and working on improving. This week the hardest thing was the time. There is never enough time both in the office and out working. I dont like to feel like I have left things undone I like to finish things but somedays when we leave the office or have to start walking home at night I have to let things wait until the next time that I have to finish things. The best thing about my calling is that I represent something so big and so important. i love inviting people to come unto christ. I always think about the temple and want so badly that others can have the blessings we have in the temple. I am so grateful for what we all have The hard times and all.

Things are going really great here. I love my companion we are having a great time together. It is so great in the office because we are all working around eachother, with other companionships, so much more. It is great to get to know the missionaries more. I am feeling really good about what I am doing in the office. I keep learning more and more but as of right now we havent had a big problem. haha. I just keep praying everything stays organized.

I love you al so much. I am so happy that we can be an eternal family. it doesnt matter what happens to us if we follow christ and obey him we can be together forever. yesterday we taught a lession about obedience I love the promises that god has for us. If we obey he WILL bless us. He is a man to his word so we just need to obey him. I love you all and i love the gospel.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

This week was so so so so so busy. I cant even begin to tell you how tired I am after this week. To start off we had conference which was so amazing. I loved it sososososso Much. It was so awesome that they talked in their own language. Being here around so many latins it was so amazing to be here for that. It is like I said last week. The latins who speak english generally like watching in english because with translation you loose some emotion. So I know that the people loved being able to hear in their own language. I cant wait to the conference center and hear one in spanish. For the spanish talks we all went next door to the spanish room to listen. So that is what we did saturday and sunday.

Monday was a normal day in the office and in our area. On tuesday we had to go to the office in the morning at 5:45 to sent the old missionaries home and stuff. Then we were busy all day in the office and getting things ready for the new missionaries that got to the mission tuesday. In the afternoon they got there so we had to get their lunch ready, dont worry we didnt have to cook it. That night the office staff had our presentation. Then we had to go to the office and help the asistants with some stuff for the new missionaries and the changes. On wednesday we had changes so we were running arround getting everything ready for that. On thursday it was a normal day. There are two new people in teh office. A new asistent elder Brown and the new secretary Elder Esquivia. My companion is elder Gonzalez from mexico. he went to the school where i went to the mtc. he is really great and I am excited to be with him. Elder Arbon went to a sector really close and actually is our zone leader so I talk with him each day because I am the district leader now. On friday we had the mission leaders meeting so we were getting that ready thursday night until like 11:30. With all of these meetings and changes this week was really busy but it was a lot of fun. Now this next week should be more normal but we will see. In our area we are working on finding more peop'le. We have been able to find some new people this week to teach which is great. You asked about my old companion Elder Rodrigues. He got changed and is actually in my old area of paso hondo in quilpue with my trainer elder Abarca. he is doing better.

Everything is going really well. I am now the only financial secretary in the office and things have gone well as of right now. I am doing good and I am really happy with things I always love it when I am busy. I am supper tired and am excited to rest a little today.

i Love you all

That is so awesome to hear about the experience that adam had. Thats so great that he can be sharing the gospel while he is their.

I have talked to Elder Wilkes before. he goes home the same time as elder Arbon.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Lots of photo's this week from the mission blog. It was their zone conference.
A great thing about conference is that for 4 days a year you and your missionary are doing the exact same thing at the same time :) CH

Back of head shot

Elder and Sister Cluff from office

Hola Familia

Estoy tan animado por la conferencia general.

Yay its conference day. I love conference it is the greatest. I am really hoping to hear some great council for missionary work. And i promise you there will be a lot. This week went well. I am always happy even if the work is moving slowly. Our area has been really hard to find people to teach. It is really frustrating. I feel like my life is a little bipolar right now.haha. In the office I have seen so much progress. I have learned a ton and feel a lot better with everything. Then in my area we havent seen a ton of change. We have talked to a lot of people but there havent been very many with a really desire to listen or know that these things are true. It makes me so grateful for what we have in the gospel. I was thinking about how we were going to have conference today and thought about how so many people dont even know what that is or dont understand the importance of the conference and a living prophet. It just makes me want to share it with everyone. We have been talking about that a lot with the people in the street. The people have talked really positively about it and I hope that some of them go to the conference. I invite everyone to invite someone to the conference. It isnt too late. I know that everyone has facebook and internet so you can all invite your friends. I know that someone will watch and you could be the instrument of the lord to change the life of someone. I am oh so grateful for what we have. I know that many people dont want to accept these things but there are people out there who are being prepared.

This week my companion should be changing areas so I will be the only financial clerk in the office. AHHHHH! but its fine. I feel really good about things. I am happy because he will be in the mission for another 1.5 months so I can call him if I need help. Then he goes home and I will be the only financial clerk in the mission. Some people asked a little about the office. We still study until 10:30 we dont have language study. We go to the office from 11-4:30 and then we go to our area. Sometimes we have to leave the house at 9:30 or 10 to do payments or get money from the bank. The church has its own internet page to pay everything. Sometimes there are some people that we can only pay from a bank deposit so we have to go to the bank to do it. It is really interesting. I love being able to help the missionaries keep working.

I love you all so much. I would love your prayers this week as I will start working alone in the office. It should be a busy week because we have to send home the old missionaries and receive the new missionaries then we have changes and we also might be having a zone leader meeting at the end of the week so it will be interesting.

Thanks for your prayers and suport.

Les quiero

Elder Hamilton

My friend Lori Lee found this photo on a blog called Missionary Momma.

Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."